History
Learn more about the history of the Colorado Freedom Memorial and the events that led up to and after its conception.
May 29, 2000
KEZW-AM 1430 Breakfast Club broadcast from the Normandy-American Cemetery, France
As part of Memorial Day weekend in France, Rick Crandall, program director and Breakfast Club host on AM 1430, KEZW, in Aurora, Colorado, planned a four-hour live broadcast of his morning radio show from the Normandy American Cemetery. The broadcast, supported by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation and the American Battle Monuments Commission, was planned as a tribute to the WWII veterans of Colorado. During the planning of the broadcast Rick and his team learned there were 88 from Colorado buried at Normandy. This lead to questions, out of curiosity, about how many others must be buried in American military cemeteries around the world, and further, how many Colorado veterans had been lost in all of America's wars. During the broadcast the team at the Normandy-American cemetery brought several guests to be part of the show including a visitor from California who was seeing his brothers grave for the first time and a French woman who lives near the cemetery who remembered her father bringing wounded DDay veterans into their barn to bandage and hide from the Germans. As the broadcast at Normandy ended Rick, and his wife Diane, took one last walk through the cemetery and looked over the rows and rows of headstones and Stars of David and it was an image that Rick couldn't shake. He didn't know it then but this day was the start of a journey that would change his life, and the life of many back home in Colorado.
November 3, 2000
Colorado Freedom Memorial is established
Beginning in June of 2000, after returning from the radio broadcast at the Normandy-American Cemetery, Rick Crandall began sharing the idea of creating something to honor the Colorado veterans killed in action. It was what he had seen, and felt, during his broadcast that he just couldn't let go of. As he said to anyone that would listen, ``the thought that there are young men and women, largely teenagers, laying so far from home and most have never had a visit from home, just bothers me.`` So first Rick began meeting with anyone who would listen to gauge their support for the idea of honoring these heroes. The general consensus was the idea was a good one as long as Rick spearheaded it since he obviously had the most passion for it. In August and September meetings were held at the American Legion State Headquarters on the grounds of the old Lowry Air Force Base. In attendance were Rick Crandall, Brigadier General Sal Villano, USAF, retired; Pat Smith, Adjutant, Colorado Dept. American Legion; Tom Bock, past National Commander, American Legion; Ken Gaunt, WWII veteran and Fairmount Cemetery historian and Col. Frank Bales, USMC, retired. These first meetings laid the basic outline for what was to follow and some spirited discussion was part of the process. Who would be honored? Should it include the Civil War and Indian War veterans? After a summer of discussions the group met on Friday, November 3rd, 2000 at the American Legion one final time. At this meeting it was agreed that a Memorial would be built to honor Colorado veterans killed in action from the Spanish-American War through present day, honoring those the died during Colorado statehood. It was further decided the criteria for inclusion was Colorado as Home of Record upon entering service and the deceased service member must have been killed in action or from direct injuries suffered in action. The final business item was a name for the Memorial and Pat Smith simply uttered, ``Why don't we call it ``The Colorado Freedom Memorial.
March 4, 2001
Colorado Freedom Memorial Foundation hires designer Kristoffer Kenton
After plotting a course for the creation of the Colorado Freedom Memorial in November, 2000, it was now time to find someone to design it. In December, 2000, Rick Crandall had a meeting with the Executive Director of the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum to get advice on building the Memorial. Rick asked if the Director had any leads on a person who might design a Memorial and he remembered a young man he had recently met that impressed him a lot with some design ideas for the Wings Museum. That person was Kristoffer Kenton, whom Rick called and had a 45 minute long call with to share his plans for the Memorial and asked if Kristoffer would be interested in designing the Colorado Freedom Memorial. Kristoffer expressed his interest in the project and promised to call in January 2001 after returning from holiday break. True to his word he called in January and Rick and Kristoffer sat together for the first time and as Kristoffer opened his sketch book there on the pages was the exact design that would become the completed Memorial 12 years later. After meetings in January and February of 2001 an agreement was reached March 4, 2001 to hire Kristoffer Kenton Design as designer of the Memorial.
October 22, 2001
Fundraising for Memorial construction fund began
After receiving the I.R.S. 501c3 designation in June of 2001 a small group of CFM supporters began approaching potential donors about giving to the Memorial construction fund. Kristoffer Kenton had estimated the construction cost of the Memorial to be approximately $1.2 million dollars. After some initial enthusiasm for the project America was struck with the terror attacks on September 11th, 2001 and immediately you could sense a change in our country. The time no longer felt right to ask for money for the Memorial when military action was likely to take place in response to the attacks. On October 22nd, 2001, the CFM notified Kristoffer that all work on the project was being stopped until the country had been given enough time to deal with our grief and the threat against her.
2002-2004
Memorial location scouted and chosen with continued fundraising efforts
For the next three years Rick Crandall would continue to speak, on occasion, to military organizations, church groups, civic clubs and others and raise small amounts of money to go into the construction fund. There were even efforts to find a location for the future Memorial and at one time a spot at Lowry Air Force Base was chosen for the Memorial but the effort to raise money had been slowed dramatically by world events and that location was given up as the redevelopment of the former Air Force Base accelerated. Shortly after Mayor Paul Tauer of Aurora asked about the possibility of building the Memorial in Aurora, in a future park location which would provide the Memorial Foundation plenty of time for fundraising. Rick attended an Aurora City Council Study Session to present the Colorado Freedom Memorial concept and the Council gave unanimous approval to having the Colorado Freedom Memorial in Aurora.
February 12, 2005
Board of Directors, bylaws and future plan of action created
After working to keep the Colorado Freedom Memorial idea alive through the difficult times of the first years of Operation Enduring Freedom Memorial in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom and the loss of Colorado veterans in those actions on February 12, 2005 a meeting was held to create a Board of Directors for the Colorado Freedom Memorial, approve bylaws and an action plan. This effort would not have been possible without a very generous donation from Diane Garcia, President of 2G Associates and her agreement to serve as Vice President of the CFM Board. She became a strong voice for the Memorial and re-energized the effort to make the Memorial a reality. Over the next two years the Memorial Foundation would host events at the potential future site of the Memorial and ramp up appearances at meetings, all designed to create awareness of the Memorial. Several thousand dollars were raised and momentum seemed to be on our side, until the Recession of 2007 arrived and fundraising became very difficult. While we continued to do our best to gain financial support for the Memorial, by 2012, with only half of the necessary funds raised, it seemed likely the Colorado Freedom Memorial may never be built.
May 25, 2012
Dry Dock Brewing Company Radiothon brings in final money needed for construction
For those close to the Colorado Freedom Memorial over its long, arduous journey, the radio-thon being broadcast from Dry Dock Brewing Company this day over AM 1430, KEZW seemed the perfect opportunity to finally raise the money necessary to build the Colorado Freedom Memorial. Rick Crandall had recently met with Kristoffer Kenton, the Memorial designer and Mike Yaggi, veteran owner of Iron Mike Construction to review the cost of constructing the Memorial. By eliminating a few design elements they were able to reduce the cost of construction to a new figure of $800,000. The Foundation had just over half of that raised and set a goal of $400,000 for the radio-thon. Rick Crandall hosted the 12-hour broadcast and beforehand had decided, but told no one, that this was the last shot. If the money wasn't raised he felt it would be time to say everyone had made their best effort but the support simply wasn't there and it was time to close shop. And while the possibility broke his heart, he was comfortable with it. With one hour left in the broadcast only $55,000 had been pledged and Rick resigned himself to the inevitable, and then the miracle happened. Diane Crandall received a call on her cellphone from a man who had made a decent donation the year before. He was also a big fan of Rick's morning show. He asked Diane how much had been raised, she told him and after a moment of silence he said to her, ``I will give the Foundation the rest.`` Diane, overwhelmed with emotion, said, ``$345,000 ?`` and he said, ``Yes, now tell Rick to start playing music!`` After getting a little more information Diane walked out to the table Rick was broadcasting from, asked to make an announcement and held up a sign that said, WE DID IT!!! The Colorado Freedom Memorial was about to become a reality!
February 2, 2013
Ground-Breaking as Construction begins
Immediately following the successful radio-thon and reaching the fundraising goal, Rick Crandall met with the Aurora Parks and Open Space team for lunch to discuss building the Memorial. There was an immediate problem with the location for the Memorial, the park that was going to be built where the Memorial was going to sit was still years away from having funding. The Memorial could still be built there but would be entirely surrounded by vacant, unlandscaped field. A new site would be necessary. At that moment Tracy Young, from the Aurora Parks and Open Space staff remembered she would be attending a meeting that night to discuss a new park being developed with a neighborhood association. Plans for the park were completed except for a 4 acre parcel that no one had come up with an idea for. The site plan was drawn out by Tracy on the paper tablecloth at the table they were sitting at and Rick felt it might be a great fit. He hoped in his car, drove to the site and just as he arrived two F-16s flew overhead. He immediately called Tom Barrett, head of Aurora Parks and Open Space and said, ``We'll take it.`` That evening Tracy presented the idea to the neighborhood association and they overwhelmingly approved the idea. On February 2, 2013, with hundreds in attendance, ground was broken and construction began.
May 26, 2013
Dedication of the Colorado Freedom Memorial
4,745 days had passed between the Memorial Day broadcast from Normandy, France in 2000 and this day. Now, gathered under partly sunny skies on a late Spring day, several thousand people joined together for the dedication of the Colorado Freedom Memorial. It was perfect, and emotional, and joyful in a sense that finally, after walking through the rows of graves of fallen Colorado heroes 13 years earlier, the idea of symbolically bringing them back home, if by name only, had been accomplished.